


a date, a dress, a cat

by seante



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, inspired by ladyinred's fic little lion man, prequel-kind of thing, you don't need to have read hers! just know leo's cat!jaime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26090272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seante/pseuds/seante
Summary: After a horrible date, Brienne comes home to her cat.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 23
Kudos: 78





	a date, a dress, a cat

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Little Lion Man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23468011) by [Lady_in_Red](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_in_Red/pseuds/Lady_in_Red). 



When Brienne returned back to her apartment, she finally felt as if she could cry. She had spent the bus ride home trying to make herself smaller, slouching into herself as commuters crowded in around her. The entire ride she was staring down onto the ground, firmly trying to not look at the blue dress, even if it was directly in her sight. Pia had said it was pretty— her eyes lit up when she saw her in it, and for a moment Brienne felt beautiful. But her date had said nothing, did nothing besides regard her with a stalely look. The conversation fell under the same trend: Brienne could feel every pause in the conversation, the panic when she needed to say something but didn’t, and his coldness when he needed to pick up the pieces. But it could’ve gone worse, and Brienne was not foreign to how  _ wrong _ things could go. It was fine.

Leo’s familiar scampering to the door broke her reverie. He chirped his welcome, a brief moment of entirely wholesome affection before his affection twisted to his more familiar irritating brand as he tried to stop her from taking off her shoes. At the start, it had just been another way to annoy Brienne, but now it had turned into something more light and teasing as they got used to each other. Leo failed to notice her bad mood, batting at her flats playfully as she tried to pry them off. On another day, Brienne would’ve laughed— her strange one, the one that Hyle once told her sounded like a seagull— but today Brienne rumbled out a “stop”, the energy in the air suddenly turning cold like the days when she had first gotten Leo. Leo’s paw hung suddenly still in the air, and a rush of guilt hung over her heart as his eyes narrowed and tail whipped, his back suddenly straight as he stalked away from her, as if to say,  _ fine, I don’t need you _ . 

Brienne watched him go, loosening her suddenly tight hold on her purse as she sighed. She already knew he would be sulking on his familiar spot near the windowsill. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. Leo gave no indication he heard her.

Disappointing her cat should not have been such a blow.

Brienne went to hide in her room, taking a long, final look at herself in the mirror. The dress was beautiful, hanging off her shoulders, giving her the illusion of curves where she had none. She was the problem. Pia had done her makeup, following the same idea her dress did— make her look as normal as possible, if she couldn’t be beautiful. She once heard how women felt different wearing makeup or without it: she would have said she had no opinion either way before, but now she too closely felt the reminder that she didn’t have one because makeup did nothing for her. The few, rare times she had followed videos on how to do makeup only accentuated her features, leaving her looking worse; only under Pia’s hand did she manage to look marginally better. But only marginally, and never enough to be normal.

Brienne bit her lip, finally taking off the dress, taking care of the zipper. She took a breath in, straightening out the wrinkles as she admired the dark blue silky fabric and gold thread on the sleeves, embroidering barely noticeable golden stars and moons. Distantly, she was aware she was crying. It was all so ridiculous. How many times had she told herself she was all above it? How many times would she have to cry and learn the same lesson before she finally got it? She wiped the tears from her eyes, hanging the dress in the very back of the closet and exchanging it for a stretched out but comfortable hoodie and sweatpants that made her look shapeless. She didn’t look at the mirror as she left her room. Even then, she was aware of how eyes her red were, how tears were still coming out of her eyes, the thick lump in her throat. She tried to ignore it all, swallow back the tears. She kept echoing  _ fine _ over and over in her head, as if it would finally let her accept the situation. She opened the door.

Leo was still sitting on the windowsill, tail thumping and aggressively looking away from Brienne, despite being directly in his eyeline. 

Brienne felt another pang of guilt as she looked at him. She turned away, shuffling off into the kitchen. At Brienne’s first attempts at reconciliation when Leo went into a sulk, Brienne had foolishly approached him, only to be met with hisses and bared teeth. Brienne had generally let him ride his moods— eventually he would come back to her, with enough time. It didn’t mean she didn’t feel bad for lashing out at him. She knew just the thing that would act as a good ‘sorry’ gift. Many times Leo acted out for no reason, but this time it was her fault.

She searched the cupboards for the last tin of expensive wet cat food she had splurged on. When she had to inevitably switch to a less expensive brand, Leo went into a sulk, adamantly refusing to eat for an hour before he begrudgingly went to it. As she cracked it open and spooned it to the food bowl, she could hear no footsteps behind her, or the jingle of Leo’s collar, even though she knew he could smell it. As delicious as the food was for Leo, it easily smelt the worst, but it was a small price to pay to make Leo happy. The only response she got was a slight twitch of his nose.

Brienne sighed and hoped Leo got the message as she took out a pint of icecream, settling onto the couch, wrapping the fluffy blanket around her. She stared at her reflection for a moment, taking in her slouched form, her too-large lips, body, everything. Behind her, Leo jumped off his windowsill. She didn’t have an answer to make herself feel better. In the corner of her eyes, she could see her phone flashing with notifications. From Pia, no doubt, who told her to tell her everything that happened on the date. Brienne didn’t want to break her bubble; even Brienne had been cautiously excited, but now it felt like everything was crashing down around her.

She sniffled, taking out her phone and hitting  _ Do Not Disturb _ , aimlessly swiping through websites before she found herself suddenly revisiting the messages between her and her date. She knew she shouldn’t have opened the app again, but something made her go back. Maybe try to pin everything on him, even though she knew the problem was her. Reading the messages again felt like a another blow; it had all been a microcosm of the actual date, really, except at the very last moment where he had actually managed to make her laugh and what led her to finally ask him out.  _ A man makes you laugh and that’s enough _ . She laughed at the thought, though it sounded as if she was choking. Tears threatened to take hold again, her throat heavy as she tasted salt. The messages made her look desperate; he had messaged her first a few times, but now they screamed politeness.

She wrapped herself into the blanket further, wanting to crumple up into a ball.

A soft mrow came from the other end of the couch. 

She looked up.

Leo padded over to her slowly as if she was a wild animal, slowly blinking at her before he nestled his head into her hand, a familiar gesture for him to demand petting, at the same time pushing the phone away from her hand. When Brienne tried to pet him, phone in hand, he only tried to bat the phone, as if to push it away.

“You’re a better judge of decisions than I am,” Brienne whispered, voice still heavy. She put the phone on the couch beside her. Leo stretched onto her lap, lazing up her attention as if in sunlight, only to finish the job of sending her phone crashing into the rug. Brienne laughed, a genuine one. Brienne swore she saw a glint of smug, self-satisfaction in his eyes as he looked away from her, simply purring as she continued to pet him. 

“At least someone likes me,” she murmured, bringing Leo closer to her as she lied down against the pillow. Leo’s purrs only grew deeper. Leo was a strange creature; Brienne remembered when they first met, she thought he loathed everyone and everything. Every bit of affection, no matter how small, he pushed away with the threat of teeth and claws. But here, where he soaked up every bit of affection, it was hard to believe that projection where he pretended that he didn’t need any of it at all. Sometimes she wondered who his past owner was, or what happened to him that made him like this, the thing that left the scars that he tried desperately to hide.

“Oh, Leo, what happened to you,” she murmured, pushing her face into his fur before she fully realized what she had done. But he didn’t push her away as she expected, and Brienne wanted to cry all over again, but for a different reason, a comforting one. 

They stayed together like that for awhile, simply taking in the other’s warmth. Eventually, Brienne put her head up again, and Leo crawled up to her, moving to lick the last remnant of tears from her eyes before he relaxed on her again, settling on her chest. She eyed the last bit of melted ice cream in the pint, then sighed and turned back to Leo, who slowly blinked at her and chirped, as if telling her to fall asleep. 

“Love you too,” she murmured, ruffling the fur on his head one last time before she lied down again. Leo purred a last time, and she swore right before she finally fell asleep she could feel Leo pushing his paws in and out, a soothing rhythm that went with his soft purrs.

— 

In the morning, she was woken up by Leo’s familiar yowls for food. That night and nights later, Leo settled on her chest to sleep with her again. Months later, she would wear the dress again with a man who’s eyes had the exact shade of green as her former cat’s.

**Author's Note:**

> jaime, watching brienne getting sad looking at her phone: why is she upset at a lightbox? just put it away
> 
> thanks for reading! pls read ladyinred's lion in red, it's wonderful and i may or not have read it 50 times and its probably one of my fave fics on this website haha


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